Today, at Bath’s historic abbey, the bells will ring for the wedding of Olympic champion swimmer Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay.
Holly, the ethereal bride-to-be, is expected to walk down the abbey’s gothic aisle, beneath its fan-vaulted ceilings, on the arm of her father, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Her sisters Tilly, also an aspiring chef, and Megan, a policewoman, will be her joint maids of honour.
Proud mum Tana will be there too, of course, along with brother Jack, a marine, as well as various celebrity pals, including David and Victoria Beckham and their children (though not son Brooklyn).
It will, it is safe to say, be quite the event.
But while the pews may be packed, there is no escaping the fact there will be one very significant absence – in the shape of Adam’s own family.
Indeed, the sole representative of the Olympian’s erstwhile nearest and dearest is expected to be his sister Bethany, 32, who is one of 25-year-old Holly’s bridesmaids.
Adam’s mother Caroline, father Mark and wider family will not be among the guests. Instead, they will be at their home in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire – the same home from which Caroline used to ferry her son to and from his countless training sessions and competitions, all those years ago.
She’s trying to stay upbeat and positive but, in truth, her heart is breaking.
Holly Ramsay sets off yesterday to prepare for her wedding in Bath
Adam Peaty also leaves the property yesterday in preparation for his wedding today
The couple at their engagement party. They will marry today at Bath Abbey
Adam Peaty’s mother Caroline pictured at her home in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire in 2021
She does her best to hold them in but tears inevitably fall as she talks exclusively to the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t think they understand how much they have hurt me; it’s as if they have cut my heart out,’ she says.
‘This is the first Christmas that I’ve not had my family together – my family is broken.
‘Yes, I have my other grandchildren. Yes, I have my other children, but my family is split because of the goings on … because of the wedding.’
For, as readers of the Daily Mail will know, the Peaty family has been torn asunder by the bitterest and most heartbreaking of family rifts, in the run-up to the big Peaty/Ramsay wedding.
Six weeks ago, Caroline Peaty described to me – through even more tears – her hurt and bewilderment in the wake of an extraordinary family bust-up that had exploded into the public arena after Holly’s very glossy hen-do, to which she was not invited.
Photographs of the glamorous gathering, posted on Instagram, notably included the bride-to-be, her family and friends, Victoria Beckham, Adam’s sister Bethany, but not Caroline.
She was at home, looking after Adam’s son, George, five, from his previous relationship.
Plunged to one of the lowest points in her life, her protective sister, former lawyer Louise Williams, stepped in with some very public criticism of Holly, also on Instagram.
There were angry words between mother and son… and now this.
The last time I met Caroline, she told me she hoped to travel to Bath, even if just to sit quietly at the back of the abbey and watch Adam, 30, and Holly exchange vows, then leave.
But the furore that has continued to rage has left her resigned to staying at home.
‘Me going would just cause even more of a storm and I don’t want to ruin his wedding day. I wanted to be there quietly to watch him get married, but that can’t happen now,’ she says.
Now 60 (a landmark she reached a week ago and that wasn’t marked by Adam), Caroline’s pain is raw. ‘I don’t know if they are too young or don’t value family as much as I have, but they don’t understand that family is the foundation to everything,’ she says.
‘Family is the foundation you can return to when things get rough. I’ve had that throughout my life. Luckily my mum is still alive and still supports me at 83 – I still get told off as if I’m five! I want that for my children, if I’m lucky enough to live that long.’ She is far too discreet to reveal the messages that she has exchanged with her son – but the content has been hurtful.
She says Adam sees her as a negative influence, whom he doesn’t want to be around. She is at a loss to understand, telling me: ‘I’m not a negative person, I see the positive in everything, otherwise I would hide under the blankets and never come out.’
In a painful twist, she claims it was made clear to her that her husband Mark, 65, could attend the church service, although not the reception, which will be held this evening in the restored Georgian confines of Kin House, a manor house in the Wiltshire countryside.
Peaty with his mother Caroline long before the family rift
Peaty received an OBE in 2022 for which his proud parents Mark and Caroline were present
Gordon Ramsay with daughter Holly at her engagement party last year
Mark won’t be going.
‘Mark’s fuming,’ says Caroline. ‘He is so hurt.’
It’s for him that she’s trying to be brave: ‘Mark has said that he doesn’t want me crying all day.’ To try to avoid too many tears, the couple’s current plan is to take her mother Mavis Williams, who went viral as very supportive ‘#Olympic nan’ during the 2016 Rio Olympics, for a drive.
‘We’re surrounded by beautiful countryside here,’ says Caroline. ‘So if the weather is OK we’ll go out and just try and distract ourselves a bit.’
That it has come to this is something she could never have imagined as she joined Holly and Adam’s little boy George – from his former relationship with artist Eirianedd Munro, from whom he split in 2022 – to cheer from the stands at the Paris Olympics last year as he added silver to his three previous Olympic gold medals.
Adam had met Holly on the set of Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, when he was competing alongside her sister Tilly. Their paths crossed again in 2023 and they began dating. Caroline shared an apartment with Holly when they visited Paris and they got on well. Caroline, a former nursery manager, even told Holly of her anxiety that her son was pulling away from his family.
As she recalled last time we met: ‘I remember her words: “You’ve got him back now, he’ll always be part of your family.” ’
Those words feel so hollow now.
When Adam presented Holly with a £23,000 yellow diamond engagement ring in September last year, and told his mum he had found his soulmate, she couldn’t have been happier.
Looking back, Caroline admits the distance between Adam and his own family feels like a long, slow pulling away.
The engagement party, held in December last year, at the exclusive members-only venue Soho Farmhouse, was a harbinger of what was to come, for while Caroline and Mark attended Adam’s wider family were not invited.
Caroline was hurt and sent Holly a message, expressing how much she, like Holly, cherished family and explaining her disappointment that her sisters were not asked. She wrestled over the wording of the message. It was, she insists, polite and diplomatic, however Adam was furious.
The bad feeling continued at the engagement party itself. Caroline was dismayed to find that a Netflix film crew had also been invited to the glossy shindig to record footage for Gordon Ramsay’s new show, Being Gordon Ramsay.
Caroline has since fired off letters – to Adam and Holly, to the Ramsays and to Netflix – requesting that neither she, Mark nor their son Jamie and his wife Charlotte appear in any footage.
There has been precious little other contact with the couple who are soon to be her in-laws. Prior to the engagement party, Caroline sent a message to Tana, asking what she had done to upset Holly, because she didn’t feel included in preparations. She received no reply.
‘I would approach any of my sons’ mothers-in-law if I had a problem,’ says Caroline, bewildered.
‘At the engagement party Tana was very welcoming. She gave me the impression of being a loving and caring mum. She was the perfect hostess.’
An unspoken ‘but’ lingers.
‘If this was my son treating Holly’s family like they are treating us, I would take him to task,’ she adds.
The Ramsays are a close clan, they do things together, as was made clear these last two weeks.
First the assembled family joined Adam and Holly on a trip to Bath, getting ready for the big day, then came the little pre-wedding trip to Lapland, and last night (Boxing Day) continued with festive, pre-wedding drinks.
Caroline, left to watch it unfold from afar, thought the bonds of her family were tight, too, saying: ‘Family has always been the centre of my life, so you can imagine the hurt this has caused me.’
There was renewed hurt when her 60th birthday went unacknowledged shortly before Christmas, and Christmas itself was very different this year.
She’s a stalwart woman, all those early starts taking Adam to training have stood her in good stead.
Holly, Caroline and Adam pose for a picture for an event that was posted to Adam’s Instagram last year
Holly at her hen do with family friend Victoria Beckham
For years, she’d get up at 4am every day, drive him 40 minutes to the pool in Derbyshire, then wait two hours before driving him home – do a full day at work herself, then repeat the process again in the evening.
Her dedication and sacrifice were instrumental in propelling him to Olympic glory – something Adam frequently acknowledged, calling parents like Caroline and Mark the ‘unsung heroes of sport’.
If Caroline were a more self-centred woman, she might resent all she put into supporting her son as a younger man. She does not. She doesn’t for one moment think this entitles her to anything.
‘I deserve to be there [at the wedding] as his mother, not because of what I’ve done for him – because that is what a mother does – but to stand proud and see her son married.
‘He says I am playing the victim, but I don’t think my son knows me at all, he’s just making excuses not to be around us.’
And yet, she wants only the best for Adam, whom she proudly tells me has got where he is on the back of his own talent, in and out of the water.
Does she think he has become distracted by the celebrity world the Ramsays inhabit?
‘I don’t think he is that fickle. I think he has been swept along.
‘Adam has more than enough money to do all this himself anyway. That’s why I know his head hasn’t been turned by money.
‘Adam has made his own money, investing and building businesses. He has worked very hard for what he has got and what he has gained.’
She is unwavering in her desire that Adam and Holly enjoy the same long and happy relationship that she and Mark have.
‘Adam is genuinely in love with Holly. When he told me she was his soulmate, that made me so happy,’ she says. ‘It still makes me happy now.’
She has faced criticism for feeding the furore by speaking out – but she wishes to be clear, she has spoken publicly about this horrible saga just twice, to the Daily Mail, because she feels all other communication has failed.
She has never been paid for doing so, and is enduringly protective of her sister, who only stepped in because she could see Caroline’s pain.
‘I was brought up in a family where we protected each other and that’s how I brought up my children,’ she says.
She has had plenty of time to contemplate Adam’s grievances.
‘Nobody is perfect, my other children are not perfect. Whenever they have needed support, I have been there and stood by them. That’s being a mother.
‘I was brought up by my mum and dad to care and love, to do my best and to respect other people. You can’t control the choices your children make – and I think people forget that.
‘Adam has made the choice that he is standing by Holly and I am proud of that, because I wouldn’t expect anything less of him. But at the same time, I feel he should have said: “Mum, I’ll have a word.” ’
Of course, there are other disappointments, too. She won’t get to wear the dress that Adam told her was inappropriate bridal attire (it was cream, with navy trim), nor has she been able to make the photo book she wanted to give them as something more personal.
‘I haven’t got the money to buy presents costing thousands of pounds, so I thought I’d make something more personal – do an album of them side-by-side growing up and then their good times together.’
Caroline formulated the plan from the moment the wedding was announced but the photos she requested from Holly’s mum never arrived and she has no expectation they will now.
Nevertheless, she says: ‘I’ve sent cards, my family have sent cards, too. I’ve sent a gift and my mum has sent a gift. If they don’t open them, if they tear them up, that is up to them.
‘I’ve sent it because I wanted to wish them all the best. I want them to start their married life in a positive manner, knowing their family are wishing them well, whether we are in a feud or not.
‘Whether he ever speaks to me again is of no consequence to his wedding day, my end goal is to wish him a long and happy marriage.’
She will follow the wedding day by waiting for news coverage and social media updates from the happy couple and their family. Not that she expects to see any snapshots of proceedings – mobile phones have, the Daily Mail understands, been banned.
She hopes the ceremony might at least bring peace.
But, earlier this week, Caroline’s elderly aunt and uncle, who had been invited to the wedding – but had decided not to attend, in dismay at their nephew’s actions – received an email telling them they would no longer be on the guest list for the event. Caroline is, needless to say, aghast.
She was similarly pained to discover the sportsman had sent the children of his sister Bethany Christmas presents, but not those of his brother Jamie.
Yet, despite it all, she still says there is nothing she won’t forgive. ‘As a mother, all you want your children to do is be happy in their relationships,’ she says.
‘I’ve not done this to ruin their wedding. It’s their wedding, yes, it’s a happy day – but it needs to be said.
‘They are both still loved, there is nothing I won’t forgive, and I want them to have the best day.
‘And what I want to say to Adam is stand by each other. But just because you love somebody and that love is intense, don’t forget the other people around you.
‘A wedding day is such a happy event, and I think family should have been the priority at that wedding.’
- Caroline Peaty received no payment for this interview.
- Additional reporting: Tracey Kandohla
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